Since Serian moved USA Lens to Florida late last year, the state Attorney General`s Office has received at least 75 complaints from customers who paid for lenses they have not received.

Moreover, Serian operated the company in Missouri until late 1985, when it was placed in involuntary bankruptcy after 5,000 customers didn`t get their contact lenses and the state filed a lawsuit accusing it of consumer fraud.

In addition, five contact-lens companies that Serian operated in Ohio during the early 1980s filed for bankruptcy in 1983 after a flock of customer complaints there.

In a recent telephone interview, Serian, 37, blamed optometrists for pressuring contact-lens manufacturers into refusing to fill his orders about 18 months ago.

He said USA Lens, one of a handful of mail-order contact-lens firms in the United States, has been wrecked by having to resort to middlemen to buy contact lenses.

``It`s an industry that has not had to be open to consumers for 50 years, and I bucked the system,`` Serian said.

State and federal officials call Serian a bad businessman who fills his ads with attractive promises -- rush deliveries and low prices -- that he knows he can`t fulfill.

Postal inspectors in St. Louis are conducting a mail-fraud investigation, while the Florida Attorney General`s Office has threatened USA Lens with a lawsuit if Serian doesn`t clear up the complaints.

``The complaints are still coming in,`` Assistant Attorney General Fred Hochsztein said. ``By far, the lion`s share of the complaints have to do with failure to deliver.``

Those complaints say that customers have waited two, three or even six months after sending their money to USA Lens -- delays that violate the Federal Trade Commission`s Mail-Order Rule.

Serian`s attorney, Mark Goldberg of Fort Lauderdale, said his client is nothing but an average businessman tripped up by opposition from the contact- lens industry.

Serian incorporated USA Lens in Missouri in 1984, complete with a toll-free telephone number, because he was convinced the time had arrived for outflanking his fellow optometrists.

``I thought I was going to make a hell of a lot of money when I got into my business,`` he said. ``I thought there would be no stopping USA Lens. The replacement market is lucrative.``

He made his pitch through mail-outs and costly ads in publications such as Cosmopolitan, offering top-of-the-line daily-wear lenses for under $60 and extended-wear lenses for under $100.

His target audience was veteran contact-lens wearers who were supposed to get their prescriptions from their optometrists, then send them in with their orders.

In the ads, Serian -- using the name Seriani -- portrayed himself as a maverick optometrist.

``Dr. Joseph Seriani has been labeled as a consumer advocate for the last 11 years,`` one ad says. ``He continues to gain national publicity for his efforts to make eyecare and eyewear affordable for all Americans.``

Serian maintains it`s perfectly safe to buy contact lenses through the mail -- people with problems can visit their optometrists -- and that the hue and cry against his business is sour grapes.

The American Optometric Association, however, says that mail-order contact lenses are risky. Even veteran wearers run the risk of infection, it says, unless each set is fitted and examined by an optometrist.

Serian has also had trouble with the state boards that license optometrists.

As part of its complaint against Serian and USA Lens, the Florida Attorney General`s Office has accused Serian of practicing optometry and opticianry without the proper state licenses.

Serian`s license in West Virginia was revoked five years ago, his license in Ohio was suspended for six months in 1983 and a judge in Missouri is now trying to decide whether he still has a license there.

There is also no doubt that Serian`s firms have left a trail of complaints wherever they operated.

Serian said he had 800 unsatisfied customers in Ohio at one point and 5,000 in Missouri, but that all but about 1,000 have since gotten their contact lenses.

``That`s out of 64,000 customers. Many of them did have to wait an inordinate amount of time, but they did get substantial savings,`` he said. ``I`ll bet I`ve helped lower the price $40 a lens.``